Tag Archives: Fish Price Setting Panel
Still a lot of crab to be caught in Newfoundland and Labrador
A 2022 report by consultant David Conway, who was commissioned by the province to review the fish price setting system, recommended the industry begin discussions in October of that year to establish a formula for crab prices for the 2023 season. However, discussions between the FFAW and ASP didn’t get going until March, partly because both groups saw a change in leadership over the winter with Keith Sullivan resigning as union and Derek Butler leaving as executive director of the ASP. The decision on prices for this season fell to the province’s Fish Price Setting Panel which used the final offer selection model, where processors and the union each made a pitch on price and the panel had to choose one or the other. >click to read< 13:12
‘This catastrophe rivals the cod moratorium’: Newfoundland crab fleets won’t fish for $2.20 a pound, FFAW is considering ‘political actions’
They’re not going to fish. That’s the promise from crab fleets in Newfoundland and Labrador Thursday, April 6, after the Fish Price Setting panel announced its decision on snow crab prices to start the season. The panel chose the offer of $2.20 a pound submitted by the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP), a 10 cent increase from their initial offer. The Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) negotiating committee had suggested $3.10, lowering their original offer of $3.48. In a news release Thursday afternoon, FFAW president Greg Pretty said the decision by the panel, “has put our industry in the most precarious position it’s ever been in.” “When it comes to dollars and cents, this catastrophe rivals the cod moratorium,” he said, repeating words first spoken by inshore fish harvester Jason Sullivan during protests over quotas for the inshore fleet earlier this month in St. John’s. >click to read< 11:38
Multi-million dollar capelin fishery is a bust for eastern Newfoundland
The Lone Wolf is lying idle at the wharf in Hickman’s Harbour, Trinity Bay. The only sound is the lap of water against hull, the occasional screech of sea gulls flying past, hunting for food. Earlier this year the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) set a quota of around 15,000 metric tonnes for fishing zones from the south coast (area 3Ps) to the North East coast (2J, 3K and 3L zones). Inshore licenses, like the one the Marshes have, grant them just 12,000 pounds of crab. “This year we landed $82,000 worth,” she said. And that’s not a whole lot of money to pay a crew and cover the expenses of running a boat. “Last year I could fuel up my boat for $800,” she noted. “This year it costs $1600.” Capelin could have added another $30-40,000 to their seasonal revenue, making it the second most important fishery for their enterprise. But they’re not fishing it. Why not? It’s complicated. >click to read< 11:05
We’re not going anywhere — FFAW
According to Mr. Butler, fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador are living like kings and queens while the poor processing companies struggle to balance the books. It’s a tale that’s been spun by Butler and his cronies with the Association of Seafood Producers since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ah yes, Derek Butler, champion of corporate profits, knows much about the rich shrimp harvesters of the Northern Peninsula (who, by the way, have no access to crab). They haven’t been able to sell their shrimp for enough to make ends meet, while the same companies buy the exact same product for over 50 per cent more at their facilities in Quebec. >click to read< 07:44
SEA-NL: Standing Fish Price Setting Panel
SEA-NL says an immediate priority for the 2022 inshore fishery is for the province to amend its fish price-setting system to address a weakness that cost harvesters untold millions of dollars in last year’s snow crab fishery alone. “Inshore harvesters were not paid a fair-market return from their snow crab sales in 2021 because a provincial government regulation stood in the way,” says Ryan Cleary, SEA-NL’s interim Executive Director. “The regulation must be amended before the start of the 2022 season, or what little faith that exists in the price-setting system will be gone altogether.”>click to read< 08:05
Shrimp prices set for Nfld. and Labrador, stockpiles and restaurant closures reducing shrimp demand in U.K.
A dollar a pound was not enough to lure the inshore shrimp fishing fleet in Newfoundland and Labrador to set their gear this spring. But most boats are hitting the water now, as the crucial summer shrimp fishing season opens. This week saw the price increase by 10 cents, to $1.10 a pound, for summer catches following a ruling by the province’s Fish Price Setting Panel. The U.K. and Europe are the main markets for shrimp exports from this province. >click to read< 13:54
‘This Is It For Us’ – Harvesters Gather At Confederation Building
“A lot of people are going to be hurting” that’s the assessment of at least one crab harvester as those involved in the fishery gathered at Confederation Building today to protest the price set for snow crab this year. The event was organized by FISH-NL. The price set by the Fish Price Setting Panel is $4.55 cents a pound. That’s below the recommendation made by the FFAW. The price set for harvesters in the Maritimes is more than $5.00 a pound. Harvesters are concerned that with declining stocks they won’t be able to make a go of it. Watch video. >click to read<23:08
Newfoundland fish harvesters fed up with ‘bad news’ – >click to read<
